The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore

 

Philip and Isabel Carey are newlyweds.  They have come to a small English village where Philip is taking up a post as a new doctor.  They don't have money yet for a house so they move into an apartment in town.  Isabel isn't happy there.  The landlady lives updoors and Isabel is sure she is spying on them.  She feels the women in town are judging her and she feels isolated and lonely.  Although the war has been over for a while, there is still rationing making the job of a new cook even harder.  She takes long walks, often out to the deserted airfield where pilots were stationed during the war.

The apartment is always cold.  One day while searching for another blanket to put on the bed, Isabel finds an airman's greatcoat pushed far back in a cupboard.  She takes it down and puts it on the bed for another blanket.  It's warm and somehow makes her feel safe.  

One night, while Philip is out on another call, she hears tapping at the window.  She goes there and sees a man standing there.  He puts his hand against the window and Isabel does the same.  Soon she has met him, a former pilot named Alec.  He talks about the missions he is going on and how it feels to fly against the enemy.  They start an affair although Isabel knows it can't be real.  The war is over and the airfield is deserted.  Yet Alec comes to her most days.  How can it be?  What's the connection?

Helen Dunmore was an English author and poet.  She wrote novels and short stories as well as poetry, both for adults and children.  One of her novels won the first Orange Prize now named the Women's Fiction Prize.  Her novels write about love and loss, often set in or around World War II.  There is often a supernatural element as in The Greatcoat.  Readers will be drawn into Isobel's lonely life and the slow reveal of a long past love affair is fascinating.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.